Thanks for this. I will watch the sequel video too. I’ve been learning craft for over a year now and what I find over and over again is that many concepts are the same across models but just use different terms. The commonalities are what I’m grabbing onto. I’ve seen this approach before but with different terms. In the other approach the poster of the video mentioned the additional idea of determining whether the person in the scene achieves the goal. The answer should be “Yes. But…”. Or “No…and further more”. This keeps the narrative drive going since the only scenes that don’t need to introduce a new goal or a new dilemma / source of conflict are the last scenes in the book (resolution). Even then, one can leave the door open for a subsequent book with an issue still needing to be addressed 😂. Thanks for this video. I enjoyed it and you expressed the concept differently than I’d heard it explained before…which enhanced my understanding. Keep up the good work - we beginners need gracious people like you willing to share knowledge that has helped you. Take care!
I don't think anyone should write their scenes this way... It is very formulaic and offers no understanding on how scenes work. You don't need to end your scene in "disaster", and sooner or later the audience will be confused if you keep following this process in writing scenes. Sorry, but this sort of advice is generally harmful to other writers. If you watch movies or look at other stories, you will see that they do not follow this method. You can write a scene with no "goal" or "conflict", and you don't need to end it in "disaster" lol. No hate or anything
I actually made this video because this method has been incredibly helpful for me & I’ve seen it in lots of stories that I love! Have you seen the video on sequels? Those go hand-in-hand with scenes and they help break up the suspense and tension the scenes create. In the end, everyone has their own way to write a book, and my job is to help writers find what helps them & their stories. If you don’t like this method, don’t use it. 😉
@@nataliesea I agree is doesn't need to end in disaster I would say its easier to do HERO/CONFLICT/GOAL with the conflict being anything from a situation to a person. And it doesn't need to end in disaster just if the scene starts negative or positive it should end the opposite. But again this video is obv for beginners and she's just saying what works for her and sharing that to people if they're strugglin.
I like the approach described by Randy Ingermanson: There are two types of scenes: A "Scene" and in addition a "Sequel" (or "Action" and "Reaction"). A "Scene" has a Goal, Conflict and Disaster. A "Sequel" then has a Reaction to this Disaster, a Dilemma and then a Decision. Example: Frank, the werewolf-vampire wants to buy a vegan cheeseburger (Goal) in Chapter 1 ("Scene", resp. "Action"). He wants to fly to the drive-in with his flying broom before the store closes. On the way there, however, he collides with the dragon Hubert and his broom gets broken and he now has to continue on foot (Conflict). As a result, he arrives at the drive-in much too late and the store has already closed (Disaster). In Chapter 2 ("Sequel", or "Reaction") Frank is devastated and cries (Reaction). How does he get his vegan cheeseburger now? The store won't open again until the next century! (Dilemma). Frank thinks about it and decides to break into the store and make himself a vegan cheeseburger (Decision). --> The Decision is the new Goal in Chapter 3, which is again a "Scene" or "Action"-Scene which creates a "Sequel" or "Reaction"-Scene and so on.
Very cool! I am looking at different concepts for different levels of craft - like scene craft. I have certainly heard cause and effect between scenes, and action and reaction. I believe in character driven stories and so I subscribe to the idea that somebody and possibly more than one person needs to have a clear goal in the scene. People who want nothing, do nothing. And that’s a recipe for boring story. Of course you have scenes that might be more about character development rather than goal but even that is best shown through action. Action comes from motivation /goals. Considering a story where the protagonist is encountering zero conflict and difficulty is boring, then the approach you and the poster is talking about makes sense as s guide to write certain scenes. I think people are taking the word disaster too literally. All she’s saying is that you have to escalate the level of conflict happening in the scene…and conflict comes in many forms. Thanks for your example further explaining the concept. It was a cute and funny piece of story and it really did show exactly what you were talking about. 😂😂. Vegan cheeseburger. 😂😂😂
